Archived News:
As promised earlier ( story), this WON.net FTP
directory has the debut of Action Half-Life, the Half-Life version of Action Quake2. Here is the
link to the file (direct link -- ~24.5 MB), but there are no mirrors to list, as WON
has a 24 hour exclusive. Word on the
Won site is that it "includes all the fixes needed to get the bots working and
adds .zip file format for the Mod browser."
The fine folks over at AGN 3D have posted a
three second AVI showing off Raven's Soldier of Fortune. This movie's definitely
violent, as it shows a man getting an arm and a leg blown off, so viewer discretion
is advised. If that's not enough for you, they've also posted three
new screenshots (the rest on that page are old) showing off some more from
the game.
We've gotten a couple of requests asking about the strange guy who's been responding
to tech support e-mails to id Software, so I went out of my way to figure out
who the heck this guy is. His name's Eric Webb, and he's the latest guy to work
insane hours over at id. Here's the short, but sweet story of his rise to fame:
I was originally contracted by Brian [Hook] to help out with some benchmarking
and, by the luck of the gods, Graeme [Devine] decided to keep me on for a while
to help out with tech support. I have tech support experience, but this is my
first gig in the game industry.
So there you have it folks...so don't
be too surprised if he answers your tech support mail.
Word from the winners at WON is that tonight will be the highly-anticipated debut release of Action Half-Life,
the Half-Life version of the famed Action Quake2 mod.
Word from Duane at WON is that the files wile be available on the WON.net
site beginning at about 5:30 PM Pacific Time (8:30 PM EDT).
NovaLogic's official
Delta Force 2 site has undergone a major overhaul, complete with a bunch
of new screenshots from this voxel powered tactical game (thanks SpecForce.net).
Mortyr.net is reporting that an improved version of the Mortyr engine will
be used to make a new FPS based on the Warhammer
40,000 universe (thanks Frans). Their
source appears to be this
interview on DamageGaming with Mirage's Andrzej Wilewski, where he (almost
accidentally) confirms the rumors about this game's development.
GASource
has posted eight new Venom screenshots they received from GSC Game World, as
well as the news that the demo will be released this week.
This evening at 6:00 EDT, GameTime (one
of those shows over at AGN) will be featuring a live interview with Rick Johnson,
programmer on Raven's violent Quake II engine game Soldier of Fortune. As they're
apt to do with this sort of thing, questions can be submitted live via their
IRC channel, so start thinking up insults to throw their way.
AVault
has posted a 70 MB demo of Acclaim's "most certainly not for kids"
(quote mine) third person action title Shadow Man. The game features some pretty
far out concepts, including my personal favorite, a teddy bear that doubles
as a dimensional portal (I can't make this stuff up, folks).
An Omikron
Development Update on GA-Source gives a blurb about Quantic Dream's upcoming 3D action title,
Omikron courtesy of Tom Marx, the games producer. The update makes the game's development
sound like it's nearing the home-stretch, talking of the InstallShield installer and the
efforts of the beta testers.
The AQ2SEaL page has a new
version of the Action Quake2 Server Launcher, the purpose of which should be fairly
self-explanatory. The new release sports a self-described "Spiffy new user
interface," adds support for new features in AQ2 server v1.5.2, and offers other
minor bug fixes and enhancements.
Over on that Shack of his, sCary has posted
eight new screenshots from
Legend's Wheel of Time. While these shots are said to have been given out for
use in UK magazines, they are not scans of printed material, but rather the
original image files.
The "Official Prerelease" version 0.14r000 of the Crystal Space free 3D engine is now available.
Thanks Beta Bites. From the website: "Crystal
Space is a free (LGPL) and portable 3D engine written in C++. It supports true 6DOF,
colored lights, mipmapping, portals, mirrors, alpha transparency, reflecting surfaces, 3D
sprites, scripting, 8-bit, 16-bit, and 32-bit display support, Direct3D hardware
acceleration on Windows, Glide and OpenGL hardware acceleration on Windows, Linux, OS/2,
Macintosh, BeOS, ... See the extensive list of features for more
details."
Logical Progression Software has posted
version 1.02 of their Quake2
Web Viewer and also version 1.02 of their Half-Life Web Viewer, each
allowing you to view models from their respective supported games using a web interface
and OpenGL. Thanks GameDev.net. Word is that
they're hard at work on a similar program for Quake III Arena.
Meant to mention this earlier, Private Wars News
has posted a new movie showing off a "real-time day/night effect" (saw that on Voodoo Extreme). The AVI-format movie, as you can imagine from the name, shows a change from night to daylight and back again on some terrain. There's no
gameplay, but it does have that cool sped-up camera effect used in some commercials and
music videos.
Raven's Rick Johnson updated his .plan last
night with word that Raven plans on showing off Soldier of Fortune at both GenCon and
QuakeCon:
SoF will be showing at both QuakeCon and GenCon (which are about 2 weeks ago).
Jake Simpson and John Tam will be showing SoF down at QuakeCon, while myself, Kenn
Hoekstra, and several other Ravenites will be showing it at GenCon. So, here's a trivia
question for ya: In QuakeCon, the "Quake" refers to, ummm, Quake! In GenCon, the
"Gen" refers to ??? I'll post an answer in tomorrow's .plan file.
Word on Voodoo Extreme is that they will be
the exclusive hosts of the playable demo of Humansoft's SEED, to be released sometime
tomorrow. Word is it will be less than a 20 MB download. On the subject of demo plans, PC.IGN.com is reporting they will post a
playable demo of Jane's Fleet Command sometime tomorrow.
There's an update from PlanetMoon's Tim Williams on Kabuto.net talking about multiplayer play in
P.M.'s upcoming action title, as well as a new model. Thanks AGN3D. Here's the poop:
Hi, Tim Williams here (Creative Director on Giants). While C.S. is away I
thought I'd write in every now and again to let you know how some of the things in Giants
are coming along.
Well, where to start? Lately we've been really concentrating on the multiplayer game
because there are certain essential bits in multiplayer which will transfer back nicely
into what we already have for single player. Right now our present multiplayer game is a
testing ground for balancing issues. This can range from types of spells and guns, to the
punching power of Kabuto. Basically, we find out what works best, then take these elements
and slot them into the already growing single player game. So far we're just at the point
of getting the Meccaryn base properly up and running. This means actually having the
Smarties doing things like building for you, tiring themselves out, getting depressed,
giving out presents, and heading off to the pub! When you play the base-building
multiplayer game your team will be in a mad dash to build a base, then upgrade it, and all
the while trying to keep it well defended. As your base gets better (upgraded), the
Smarties get happier, and their presents get more powerful! If you're out in the field
with some major fire power it'll probably mean your Smarties are drinking cocktails,
swimming in their newly created pool, and enjoying life!
On top of this, Bob has just finished a new model: Kabuto's Offspring! This fearsome
creature is presently being animated by Shawn, who just finished animating a scene where
the Meccs first meet Borjoyzee.
Next time I'll tell you about Kabuto's Offspring, the bizarre way it's created, and
exactly what it does.
PS If you want, write to the messageboard
about your favorite features in multiplayer games: particular games, teamplay, spells,
weapons, etc., or even what you'd like to see in multiplayer Giants? As you know with us,
we always love hearing suggestions from the players out there.
Hot on the heels of yesterday's release ( story), as promised, The
Railgun Project has posted a new version 1.1.01b of the Macintosh port of the Eraser bot, bringing the Mac version of this Quake
II AI opponent up to date with the most recent release of the PC version.
The news on GameStar Online gives word (in German) about a recent
showing of the Q3A bots in Edinburgh Scotland. Here is a translation sent along by Fabian
Huester that he made with the help of BabelFish
(AltaVista Translations), that's been tweaked a bit for better English:
During a presentation in Edinburg id
software, for the first time, presented the bots against which you fight in the solo
mode. There are to be approximately 20 different computer fighters in the finished game,
among them a futuristic inline skater that hops over other players. When desired,
beginners are guided by a tutor and make a sightseeing tour of the arena: Where are the
best weapons, how do you come to the Quad Damage, where are secrets hidden?
GameSpot's Ten Questions
with Warren Spector talks with ION Storm's lead game designer on Deus Ex, ION's
upcoming action/RPG about his history in the industry, and what's up with Deus ex
development (ten questions...ten pages). Thanks Omnigon.
We followed the first couple of Kingpin beta releases here, but a huge red banner has
since been added to the page with a request from Ridah not to, so if you want to stay
current with the doings over there between official releases, feel free, but the updates
will no longer be posted here. Here is what Ridah's note says:
"Please do not link, mirror or post new release announcements for the files
on this page.
Updates are likely to occur on a regular (daily) basis, announcing new releases will no
doubt prove to be overkill.
Thank you for your co-operation."
Put away your bullet, Barney, just a solitary bit this morning: News.com
reports Key testing results for AMD's Athlon due soon announcing that the AMD NDAs
expire on August 9. Thanks AMD Zone where they point
out that their ability to report that tidbit seems to indicate News.com didn't sign one of
those NDAs.
Planet Daikatana
interviews Noel Stephens, talking with the man called "Shadow" about his
return to ION Storm as their "AI Ninja."
The bleem! website has a new version 1.4 demo of the
Bleem (bleem!) PlayStation emulator for the PC. Said to be based off the brand new 1.4
(full) release, "this new demo is full of speed/compatibility upgrades." Related
laugh of the day is in the link of the day.
The Specular
Layer's in DroneZ on GA-Source "to better illustrate the Specular Layer effects
in this upcoming Tron-inspired shooter." There are some TNT2 Need for Speed shots and Voodoo3 NFS shots on Computer Technology News comparing the game on the two
cards. There are some Star Wars Quake 2
Total Conversion Screenshots on RIVA 3D showing off progress on Star Wars Quake.
id's John Carmack updated his .plan with a Quake III Arena worklog, detailing some
changes to joystick support, as well as mention of really fixing the timescale cheat:
* log all client transitions, item pickups, and kills
* changed joystick axis to act just like arrow keys so they can be bound in the controls menu for strafing. Yes, this does remove slow walking from joystick movement, but it makes everything a lot cleaner.
* fix up PantherXL trackball support
* removed bad clear command from dedicated console clear button
* tournement queuing of spectators to enter the game
* track wins and losses as long as you stay on a tourney server
* spectators are now in fly mode instead of noclip, and use teleporters
* pass serverTime instead of msec for command timing, prevents timescale cheating
* track dual eventParms on player state
* draw crosshair and name in spectator mode
* fixed rcon
* r_colorMipLevels texture visualization tool
* don't allow weapon select and cycle when in follow mode
* archive cl_yawspeed and cl_pitchspeed
* don't draw place line on scoreboard when spectating
* fixed console chatting during intermission
* better recursive error handling
* fixed curve surface flags (no impact when landing on a curve bug)
3drage.com previews Vampire - The
Masquerade: Redemption giving a good overview of what to expect from Nihilistic's
upcoming RPG based on the White Wolf Publishing pen-and-paper game of the same name
(which, according to the preview, is the second most popular to Dungeon and Dragons).
RiP II Quake2 patch Homepage has a new version
3.4 of this popular Quake II class-based teamplay modification. the new release adds a new
Ghost class, adds some tweaks and bug-fixes, and adds Quake II 3.20 spectator support.
There's also a brand-new RIP
II MessageBoard to discuss such matters if you're feeling communicative.
The Invite Yourself Capture Ring gets underway at 9:00
PM PST tonight, where players will be randomly placed in teams to kick off the first
action in this Quake (1) CTF tourney at about 10:00 PM PST. This quote sums up the deal:
"This is a for fun tourny while we all await the official q3ctf mod. No clan
attitudes, no bitching about pings, and since Q1ctf servers are scarce, everyone will have
to deal with cruddy pings. Again - stressing fun."
All of the proper incantations recited and virgins sacrificed, loony's ISDN is in (and
there was much rejoicing). I'm a bit off schedule this morning because I was MovieBlue
last night, with my cinematic pal MrCoffee scoring tix for a premiere of Mystery
Men (if you were wondering, MrsBlue rally doesn't like to go to the movies). I liked
it, Coffee loved it, so one thumb up, and one thumb half-way up (hmmm, that sounds wrong).
When I got home the lure of deathmatch was too much for me, and I finally got to check out
the Q3Tourney map (which I totally dig) until I wore myself out.
The advertising on this page is handled through outside folks, and I almost never find
the need or occasion to directly comment on the ads here, but a thread in the new MailBag comments
on the scratch-n-win ads that seem to be appearing in the middle of the page almost every
time. While they are creative and amusing, I'm concerned they are causing what seem to be
the inevitable problems that arise when you start messing around with Java, so if they are
messing you up, please drop a line to let me know and we may have to put the kibosh on the
little buggers. That having been said, if you don't have these problems, and are a fellow
scratching addict, you'll want to check out the image of the day:
Image of the Day: The Blue's News Quake III Arena scratch
off game. Thanks Jeff!
Link of the Day: Sony to unveil
"bleem! emulator" emulator. Thanks Ant
(and loony). You can't make this stuff up.
eBay Sale of the Day: TYRRELL'S
ANTICEPTIC INHALENT--QUAKE MEDICINE. Thanks Yoda.
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